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Madelyn Knight

Sophomore Elizabeth Lamkin swims butterfly style. Lamkin placed first in this race.

With only five girls on the team, it will be impossible for this year’s girls swim team to win a meet, regardless of how many events they win. Due to the lack in numbers of people on the team, they can’t finish all the events in a meet.
“Mathematically, we probably won’t win,” sophomore Elizabeth Lamkin said. “Most teams, like Perry (Meridian), have 20 girls.”
Lamkin says she has to swim in four events, the maximum allowed by IHSAA rules, in nearly every meet. This is exhausting for her, especially if the events happen to be back to back. Also, on occasion, because of the low amount of swimmers on the team, there are multiple events the team can’t fill, because of this IHSAA rule.
Although the girls cannot win as a team, they can still win individually, but it won’t show on the team’s record. While most meets the girls have are dual meets, facing only one other school, at invitationals, they have an even lower chance of winning to almost zero percent. This is because invitationals include upwards of six to eight teams.
Lamkin also thinks that she has been swimming really well this year, but with the lack of swimmers, it won’t contribute much to the team record because other schools have multiple girls swimming. This is a problem because the other teams can fill every event and the SHS girls can’t.
Even though the team has not won a meet yet, Lamkin says she is swimming some of her fastest times currently.
Despite the girls’ efforts, and no matter how they compete, they will never be able to win a meet this season.